Due to the advantages of non-contact, high efficiency, and rich information content of the detection signal, pulsed eddy current technology is widely used in the defect detection of industrial products, especially those with cladding, heterogeneous, and multi-layer conductive structures that are extremely difficult to detect. The design and optimization of pulsed eddy current probe structure is the key to improve the detection sensitivity and accuracy, and a lot of research work has been carried out around the design and optimization of the probe structure; different materials, structures, and defects of different types or shapes need to be characterized by the use of appropriate features, and the selection and analysis of the features is also the key to the research of pulsed eddy current technology; In addition, since the pulse eddy current detection signal is greatly affected by the lift-off height, the accurate detection of defects with unknown lift-off height faces great challenges, so the suppression of the lift-off effect is also one of the research focuses. In this paper, the research progress of pulsed eddy current detection technology is reviewed from the aspects of probe design and development, selection and analysis of feature quantity, and suppression of lift-off effect, etc. At the same time, in order to better promote the development of pulsed eddy current detection technology, the paper, on the basis of the existing research, makes an outlook on the design of pulsed eddy current probe, feature quantity analysis, and the suppression of lift-off effect.